The Wisconsin Injury Research Center (WIRC) at the Medical College of Wisconsin and The Department of Health Policy and Management at The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health request funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for a national scientific conference to address patient safety and medical injuries. The conference, entitled Closing the Gap: Applying Injury Prevention Science to Healthcare Safety, will be held in Milwaukee, WI at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the Health Research Center on September 14 and 15, 2000. A total of 40 selected experts in the fields of injury prevention and patient safety will be invited including patient safety experts from AHRQ, Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the CDC- supported injury centers, the Food and Drug Administration and other appropriate experts in related fields. The purpose of this conference is to bring together injury prevention experts with patient safety experts to initiate the development of a national research agenda for medical errors and patient safety utilizing the injury prevention paradigm. This paradigm has proven to be effective in addressing a variety of injury problems. Injury prevention, as a field, is not principally focused on assessing blame. Instead injury prevention examines the physical and social environments in which injuries occur, as well as the products and behaviors involved for the purpose of developing systematic interventions to reduce the likelihood of future injuries. These characteristics of the injury prevention model complement the quality improvement thrust of current efforts towards patient safety. The conference will include both plenary and small-group sessions. Plenary sessions will provide (1) an overview of the injury prevention perspective and its relevance to patient safety and medical error, (2) a discussion of the Institute of Medicine's recent report on the Quality of healthcare in America, and (3) a presentation of a case study in addressing needle stick injuries in healthcare workers. Small group breakout sessions on day one will focus on case studies of successes in patient safety and injury prevention based upon the type of energy transfer (chemical, mechanical, and radiation) or the absence of energy. Small group breakout sessions on day two will focus on identification and prioritization of strategic goals and measurable objectives to guide a national research agenda.